31 Days of Des' Horror Favourites: #12 Dead Man's Shoes

Why I like it: Those who know me kow that I like Nietzsche and a revenge drama. 2004's Dead Man's Shoes is a Nietzschean revenge drama. The byline is: "He's in all of us" and I'd have to agree.

It stars Paddy Considine (probably best known as the father from In America) as a soldier who returns home to Northern England only to find that his mentally-challenged brother has been absolutely brutalized by a group of lowlifes.

That's only the background of the story. In fact it begins in medias res and seethes with anger and outrage the entire time. Considine's character is the hero (no doubt about that) but by the end you begin to feel dirty for rooting for him. That's the kind of movie I like. It brings out a visceral reaction and touches something deep in the human psyche.

The film shows that there are some things that can't be let go and can't be forgiven. I refuse to go further into the plot as to save its intricacies from being unraveled but it's a tightly woven nugget of modern realist horror.

Considine turns the brutality on the tormentors in a series of terrifying scenes. Terrifying because you are enjoying what is happening a little too much. Mind games and scare tactics galore.

It twists and winds down to a jaw-dropping ending I simply adore. In part this is a revenge drama but it is the morality tale end of it that is most interesting. Nietzsche once wrote (and don't complain that it's not verbatim the book's in storage):

Those who stare into the abyss should beware for the abyss gazes also.
Those who hunt monsters become monsters themselves.

And never has this been truer than this film. It certainly has found its way into my top 5 of all time list funnily enough. Watch it now.

Check these out:
-Switchblade Romance-realist horror with a crazy ending.
-Frailty-Ditto.
-The Vanishing-Double ditto.